Journal article
Rapid decline and extinction of a montane frog population in southern Australia follows detection of the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
GR Gillespie, D Hunter, L Berger, G Marantelli
Animal Conservation | WILEY | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1111/acv.12174
Abstract
The amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been implicated as a leading agent of amphibian declines. However, few studies have documented the real-time host/pathogen dynamics during the arrival of Bd and the decline of an amphibian population. Diagnosing population declines is difficult because multiple factors may be involved and data are often inadequate. However, identifying the relative impact among different threatening processes is critical to understanding population declines. We report the decline and extinction of a population of a threatened temperate montane frog species Litoria spenceri in south-eastern Australia. Unlike most threatened species at the time, it..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the Department of Environment, Water and Heritage, Australia, and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria. The research was carried out under research permits RP 94-063 RP-95-120 and RP 96-187 from the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria, and A1350 from NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, and Animal Experimental Ethics Committee approval Nos. 115/94 and 96/002 (AEC, Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria). Assistance with data collection was provided by G. Hollis, S. Fickling and M. Scroggie. Assistance and advice on analyses in R were provided by B. Phillips. M. West provided comments on the paper.